Essay on All the Pretty Horses

Essay on All the Pretty Horses

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All the Pretty Horses

John Grady is not your average cowboy. All the Pretty Horses is not your typical coming-of-age story. This is an honest tale. Cormac McCarthy follows John Grady as he embarks on his journey of self-discovery across the border. Armed with a few pesos in his pocket, a strong horse and a friend at his side, John Grady thinks he’s ready to take on the Wild West of Mexico. At their final steps in America, a stranger, aged thirteen, joins our heroes. This unexpected variable named Blevins challenges John Grady, testing his character and pushing him to uncomfortable limits. The dynamic of their relationship reveals John Grady’s capacity to care for others as he shelters this kid from the hardships of reality and the…show more content…

These two cowboys have no use for an extraneous kid with a showy horse, and Rawlins makes that clear to him, but they do not deliberately run Blevins off. John Grady recognizes the beginnings of a relationship, and he does not refuse. “We aint seen the last of his skinny ass” (41), he reflects as they continue, abandoning Blevins in the dust. His words are not resentful nor does he appear aggravated. Blevins’ eventual inclusion reflects the nonchalant attitude John Grady maintains throughout the beginning of his journey.

John Grady assumes the role of leader not on account of his own actions but rather as a reaction to his companion and their surroundings. Rawlins looks at him several times, searching for guidance regarding this strange kid. An optimistic, self-assured outlook washes away the danger surrounding Blevins, giving way to John Grady’s passive response. He accepts responsibility because he doesn’t decline, consenting to his role as leader by default. In theory, this superficial acknowledgement is rooted in genuine ability, and when the occasion demands, he will be able to perform. If John Grady looks like the leader, then he becomes the leader. But, he is still a child, a boy of sixteen. His premature self-conception as a man inspires too much faith in himself, suggesting confidences and abilities that have yet to develop.

All the Pretty Horses
John Grady Cole, the last in a long line of west Texas ranchers, is, at sixteen, poised on the sorrowful, painful edge of manhood. When he realizes the only life he has ever known is disappearing into the past and that cowboys are as doomed as the Comanche who came before them, he leaves on a dangerous and harrowing journey into the beautiful and utterly foreign world that is Mexico. In the guise of a classic Western, All the Pretty Horses is at its heart a lyrical…

Flight in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses
In an enticingly realistic novel, contemporary western writer Cormac McCarthy tells the coming-of-age story of a young John Grady Cole whose life begins and, in a sense, ends in rustic San Angelo. Page by page, McCarthy sends his protagonist character creation on a Mexican adventure, complete with barriers, brawls, and beauties. The events which bring about John Grady’s adventure and the reasons behind his decision to flight familiarity are…

The Godmother of All the Pretty Horses
In analysis of the character, Duena Alfonsa, in the novel All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, facets of her character are clearly revealed. From her physical deformity to her feelings of her father keeping her exiled in her own country, seventy-two year old Alfonsa is filled with a lifetime of complex situations. Her character was consistent and motivational in wisdom and provided greatness in her role in the novel. She is a grandaunt and…

Blood in Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses
In All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy uses blood as a unifying concept allowing it to flow within the body of the text; the reader gets a sense that the novel is giving life to someone while simultaneously bringing upon its death. The reality of John Grady exists within the use of blood, connecting his life to the natural beauty and animals through which his character emerges. Blood is essential for the human race; we need it to live, once…

The book All the Pretty Horses is a western drama about teenage cowboys as they transition from adolescence into manhood. The author, Cormac McCarthy, structures the book using echo words and parallel structure that links dialogue exchanges and makes the scenes flow smoothly. McCarthy is a master of this sort of repetition and uses this structure throughout the entire book. There are many examples of this used throughout the book, but the author primarily focuses on the interpersonal relationships…

Suffering in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses
In All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy tells the tale of John Grady Cole’s quest to capture the ideal qualities of a cowboy as he sees them: laid-back, unfettered, nomadic and carefree attitudes. These qualities soon clash, however, with the reality of darkness, suffering and mystery that seems to follow him. Reality constantly subverts his ideal dream. Time and time again, John Grady Cole works to be this fantasy, but through reality’s…

All the Pretty Horses
1.) Characters in the novel are John Grady, Lacey Rawlins, Belvins, Alejandra, Senor Rocha, Cole, Franklin, Captain and Perez. The most important characters throughout the novel are John Grady, Belvins, Rawlins, and Alejandra as they are the major characters.
7.) In the novel, a main character that disliked another character in the story was Rawlins. He loathed the young kid Belvins, who accompanied John Grady and Rawlins on their journey to Mexico. Rawlins was not a fan of…

Times journalist, McCarthy says the philosophical words: “There's no such thing as life without bloodshed” completely revealing the coveted theme of his novel, All the Pretty Horses. Considering the amount of violence that manifests itself in the book; Blevins’ murder, the prison fight, and the gunfight between John Grady and the ranch workers; all of which results from Grady’s pursuit of a peaceful life, the theme McCarthy wished to broadcast, a theme of inescapable violence, was true in its delivery…

McCarthy's Use of Title"
In the novel All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, the author shows how important the roles of the horses are in the story and how they relate to John Grady, the protagonist of the novel. The horse has played an important role in the development of America. It has been a form of transportation, easy muscle, and companionship. In the Wild West, it was an essential resource for a cowboy to do his daily chores. McCarthy describes horses as spiritual and as resembling the…

Development of Character in Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses
In a journey across the vast untamed country of Mexico, Cormac McCarthy introduces All the Pretty Horses, a bittersweet and profoundly moving tale of love, hate, disappointments, joy, and redemption. John Grady sets out on horseback to Mexico with his best friend Lacey Rawlins in search of the cowboy lifestyle. His journey leaves John wiser but saddened, yet out of this heartbreak comes the resilience of a man who has claimed his…